[New Player] finds crafting too grindy for a p2p game.

[giantslayer]

If you want to make all your stuff with organic, locally sourced, hand picked materials from bean to bar, then your life will be miserable. I got BTN to about level 10 before I said, "to heck with this." You don't have to gather and harvest everything yourself.

Approach this from a business perspective. Buying materials and crystals is a cost of business. If you can make a finished product that is worth more than it cost you, then go for it. You can usually make a profit if you can make an item HQ. There is plenty of Gil to be had on pre-60 gear that the high level crafters stopped caring about if you can make it HQ.

If you can only turn a profit by gathering your own materials, then you would be better off selling the raw materials. Find more profitable items to craft or just do gathering.

[seekified]

One of my FC mates was kind enough to craft me HQ turn-ins for all the leves up to 50. I took ALC from 0 to 50 in one day.

Doing it the "real" way is far more time consuming, but there are lots of tools at your disposal. Levequests help a LOT, and the Ixali beast tribe quests are fantastic. I started crafting after having played combat classes for three years though, so I already had a lot of stuff to begin with, I suppose.

[Alisi]

You don't have to gather and harvest everything yourself.

This latest patch, perhaps. The materials don't cost very much. They're laughingly cheap. Last patch? I don't think it was possible, unless you had a ton of gil. The prices are dramatically different. We're talking 100k ingot vs 1+ mil an ingot.

[panderin]

If you want to make all your stuff with organic, locally sourced, hand picked materials from bean to bar, then your life will be miserable.

I would rather be self sufficient than at the mercy of the market board so it is just a perspective thing. I enjoy gathering. I have a friend that lvled his gatherers doing the turnins for grand company exclusively. It was easy and didn't take much energy or time. If you lvl your gatherers you will never be beholden to the market board and that is what many crafters would like to avoid.

[FinaSel]

For Diremite webs do the Weaver levequests in Quarrymill (South Shroud).

I believe they award like 9 webs each.
I never killed any monsters to get webs, and never bought any on the Market Board.

Got all of them from doing levequests.

Here is a tip: Check the levequest rewards before accepting it.
If none of the Weaver quests give Diremite webs as a reward, do a different levequest. (I recommend the mining or botanist levequest).
When you finish that mining or botanist levequest, get the reward. When you receive the reward for any levequest, all of the other available quests are refreshed.

Check the weaver quests again and see if one offers Diremite webs.
If not, do another mining / botanist levequest until you get the weaver quests which offers diremite webs.

So that is the best way to tackle that.

For crystals, I had my retainers gathering them constantly. And, I gathered them myself.

Make everything HQ. People will pay a lot of money for HQ items, even at levels 20 and 30. Much higher than the price of mats or time spent gathering them.
Either save the money you earn from selling HQ items and gather items yourself, or use that money to buy more materials (but you won't have too much savings).

Weaver was my hardest class to level, because it requires so many mats and the Diremite webs are annoying. Fleece is also kind of annoying later on, because you need SO much.
But it is easy to get.

EDIT: Just to reiterate what others say, do Grand Company Crafting turn ins daily. They give a huge boost to your crafting experience.

[Zigabar]

Cooking wants to have a word with you. It feels hurt and betrayed that you'd put another class before it. /pats cooking There there! Who's the most frustrating class to level up? You are!

You're not wrong, but I didn't say WVR was the most frustrating. I hated leveling CUL (Twice! I must be a masochist) and it is the most frustrating by far, but the mats are usually allowed in the rawest of states, which actually makes it the least complicated.

[LalafellDown]

your retainer can gather all the shards you want and items for crafting too.

[ChameleonMS]

your retainer can gather all the shards you want and items for crafting too.

I would rather have my retainer get me materials for sale on MB.
1 venture = 30 ores/wood
30 ores/wood = 15-30k (depending on the ore/wood)

1 venture = 60 shards
60 shards costs 2-5K

I would rather buy 750 shards with the 30K earned from the ore/wood.

[Katlyna]

I would rather have my retainer get me materials for sale on MB.
1 venture = 30 ores/wood
30 ores/wood = 15-30k (depending on the ore/wood)

1 venture = 60 shards
60 shards costs 2-5K

I would rather buy 750 shards with the 30K earned from the ore/wood.

This is extremely accurate. Usually having your retainer pull in a profitable good to sell is the smartest option and buying what you need for shards or other low priced items your retainer could gather is better.

[Sakuraluna]

I would definitely suggest levequests if you aren't already doing those. You can do a quick google search for leves at your current level and go from there. It's one thing that speeds things up. The beast tribes also work well too.